INDIANAPOLIS – Maybe Reggie Miller was just getting himself jump-started for his seemingly annual meeting with the Knicks. “Hate ’em to death,” he claimed.

On his list of favorite things, put the Orange and Blue right up there above a Hanson music marathon and pickled liver.

And his Pacers teammates stood by him before they went out and trashed the Knicks, 102-88, in Game 1 of the Eastern Finals. In fact, some even openly shared his distaste.

“I don’t like them,” said Dale Davis, the 16-rebound board hero last night who sounded more like it was nothing personal, strictly business.

“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m a fan of New York. I respect what they’ve done but I still have bitterness that, over the years, they’ve been the team that has kept us out of the Finals.”

Two of the four times the Pacers tried in the Eastern Conference Finals, to be precise. Now the Pacers, who have never lost a series where they won the first game – or won a series where they lost Game 1, for that matter – are up, 1-0.

“It’s going to be won on the court. No matter what’s said, it still has to be won on the court and that’s what we plan on doing,” Davis said.

The Knicks-Pacers seem to be an annual rite. And, of course, the feelings of pure, deep, unadulterated hatred travel from Knick fans right back to Reggie. “I understand it,” Mark Jackson said of Miller’s feelings which were openly aired this week. “You’ve got to understand what he’s been through. Going to New York, being the No. 1 enemy. And it’s also something that really gets him going. So I appreciate it. I understand it and it’s sincere. I believe he [really] feels that way.”

And Miller admitting he feels the Knicks think they’re “bigger and badder” than everybody else and that he feels they show no one respect is all done to just get under the Knicks’ skins and New Yorkers’ collars.